


The Story of Time

by shinjiteii



Series: unfinished drafts [1]
Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: Implied/Referenced Suicide, M/M, Slight Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-29
Packaged: 2019-07-20 07:12:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16132256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinjiteii/pseuds/shinjiteii
Summary: No time to stand and stare anymore





	The Story of Time

**Author's Note:**

> Before y'all bring out pitchforks, I want to clarify I am not starting a new story again lol. Just publishing the drafts that have been lying in my folders since years for which I had no motivation to continue. So publishing these incomplete fics now and these may or may not be continued. Read at your own risk.
> 
> This chapter is all that I have for this story now.

 

 

 

 

This was the end. Did life even hold any meaning now?

They had been visiting the hospital since the last three days with their aunt, but there had been no improvement. And today, when his uncle had hurriedly dressed him and Sungjong up, and drove them to the hospital real quick, Woohyun knew there was something wrong. He was hoping that it would be a good thing, but judging by how his uncle’s face was set into stone, it was not a good thing.

He watched as his mom was lying lifeless on the hospital bed, Sungjong sobbing loudly sitting next to her, and being hugged by his aunt from the back.

Woohyun felt lost.

They had lost their dad three days ago in the car accident. He had hoped so much and prayed so hard that his mom would survive. Sungjong and him, had even planned how they would not let her do any work when she returned home from the hospital. She had promised them in her weak state yesterday that she would try her best to come back as soon as possible, if Woohyun and Sungjong stayed with their aunt and uncle obediently and did not fight amongst each other.

But here she was, promise already broken.

He could not cry. He had cried for an hour already, right since the time they had entered the emergency room, when his mom could not open her eyes but had managed to say sorry to both Woohyun and Sungjong.

Now he was numb.

Sungjong continued crying as his uncle and aunt tried to stop him from harming himself. He was still eight years old after all.

Woohyun should have paid more attention to his baby brother. Woohyun was ten years old, and Sungjong was two years younger than him. Sungjong needed him during this time.

But Woohyun wanted to be alone. His parents had betrayed him. They had left him all alone. Why did his mom ask him to take care of Sungjong before leaving? Woohyun did not want to live. He could not look after himself, how was he supposed to look after Sungjong?

He missed his soccer match because of them. He was supposed to play today. His parents and younger brother were supposed to watch him and cheer him. Then his team would win and Woohyun was supposed to make his parents proud. And make them happy.

But they had left him.

Woohyun couldn’t bear to stay there anymore.

He looked around him. His aunt and uncle were hugging Sungjong, trying to calm him down, as Sungjong leaned by the bed, sobbing over his mother.

No one paid any attention to Woohyun, probably thinking he could look after himself. That was what everyone expected of him. And it worked to his advantage.

Woohyun slipped out of the room silently, and then made a dash in the corridor to the elevator. No one bothered to check on him, and he was glad for that. Once on the ground floor, he ran and ran till he was out of the hospital and far away from the cursed place.

Then he let it all out.

Woohyun was weak. He tried to be brave. He tried his best to convince everyone he was alright. He was supposed to be the responsible one after all. But he was weak. Now he was alone, and he cried. He cried and cried till he did not know when he had stopped crying and was just heaving like a crazy person. No one had approached him since the area was quite deserted.

When he felt like he was ready to go back to face reality, he stood up from where he was crouched on the ground in the middle of a park. The whole area was dark, the sun already having set.

He stepped out of his hiding in a corner of the park, but before he could make his way out of the park, a rough hand caught his arm. He couldn’t even shout for help, as suddenly the hand moved to cover his mouth.

He struggled hard to get out of the grip of the person behind him. They were probably a robber.

Woohyun did not have any money, so he hoped the robber would let him go. Woohyun had to go back to Sungjong. His brother would be very worried. He chastised himself for leaving his aunt and uncle’s sight. They must have been really worried about him too. He had to go back to them. Sungjong couldn’t lose him too.

He tried his best to get out of the grip, even trying to bite into the hand of whoever was covering his mouth. But suddenly a cloth covered his mouth tightly, and he was thrown to the ground.

Opening his eyes, he was about to just try to trick his way out of there somehow, when he noticed the person leaning over him. It was a middle aged man, with torn clothes and seeming very drunk. That was scary in itself, but the scariest part was that the man had a big knife in his hand, and he was aiming towards Woohyun.

Woohyun tried to crawl back in fear, but he was not fast enough, and suddenly the man lunged the knife at him.

Woohyun raised his arms in front of himself, and the knife pierced his left hand.

The man looked momentarily stunned, so Woohyun got up and started running. And suddenly he was hit by something very hard and sharp. The hit threw him to the ground, and his mind started swirling.

Where was he? What was going on? His mind slipped into and out of consciousness. He tried to focus. There was blood all around him.

He remembered. He was going to die. If only he hadn’t been foolish and ran away by himself…

“Sungjong ah…” He muttered into the cold night air before his mind slipped into a state of final unconsciousness.

 

***

 

The ground under him was of a dark colour. Some dark liquid was covering the ground. Must be blood, he thought.

As he moved a little, his shadow obstructing the ground moved, and he saw that the ground was… wet.

It wasn’t blood on the ground though. It was just water from a puddle nearby.

Woohyun was confused.

He was sitting on the ground, in a corner. He checked his body for any damage, but everything was fine. His head was alright, and there was no injury on his hand either.

And to more confusion, he realized he was in the same place where he had been some time ago when he was crying, before he stepped out into the open to leave the park.

Was all of what he saw a dream? Was the drunk man a figment of his imagination? It could not be possible, because he was sure he had experienced the pain of getting hit by the rock, and he had also clearly felt the pain of the knife slicing through his hand. But now, all the pain was gone.

He stood up slowly, making no noise.

The place he was in, was in a corner, the foliage in front of him giving him cover.

He sneaked out from behind the well cut tree, and to his horror, the man he had seen earlier was there on the right side of the park. He had a bottle in one hand, and what looked like the knife he had seen earlier, in the other hand.

Woohyun was really confused, but he was also cautious now. He knew getting out of there now was dangerous. He decided to wait till the man moved away from there.

Minutes passed, the man was still there.

Woohyun decided to wait for longer. There was a wall right behind him, but it was high and he was sure he couldn’t get out of there quick without making noise.

Suddenly something dashed into him, and Woohyun yelped in fear. It was a cat which disappeared into the darkness of the trees.

And Woohyun realized the situation he was in. The man must have heard him. He peeked through the trees to catch a glimpse of the man, and sure enough the man was trying to search for the source of the noise. He was now quite closer to Woohyun than earlier, and Woohyun was sure he was going to be caught.

He could make a mad dash for the exit, but there was a chance that the man could catch him. Even though he was drunk, the man was strong and had been pretty active earlier. Woohyun could hide in between the trees, but they weren’t thick enough to cover his body completely.

He could not however lose the second chance life had given him. He remembered his mother, father and Sungjong. And decided he would try his best. He turned towards the wall behind him, and tried to climb up it, using the trees as support.

He had almost managed to make it after five minutes, but there was a roar of laughter from behind him suddenly.

Panic crawled inside him. He was going to die. But he continued trying. There was no way he was going to be able to hook himself up over the wall, there was still a substantial gap. He could simply try to kick the man and run, but the man was too strong and bulky. Woohyun wouldn’t stand a chance.

So he continued trying to stretch with all his willpower.

Suddenly there was a pair of hands stretched towards him from the other side of the wall. They were urging him to hold on, and Woohyun did not need to be instructed twice. He held on the hands, and was pulled out to the other side, to temporary safety.

 

***

 

Before he could gather himself, a voice next to him said, “Come on! Run!”

Woohyun did not have the time to process the source of the voice, but ran along with the person who held him by the hand and took him out of the place. They ran for around ten minutes and Woohyun caught sight of the hospital in the near distance.

“Wait” He brought himself and the person to a stop. The drunk man couldn’t hurt them now since they were in a moderately crowded place. After turning around and inspecting whether they were being chased, Woohyun turned to his saviour.

It was a boy of around his age, with cute cheeks and eyes smaller than Woohyun’s. Woohyun felt his panic wash away with how the guy was looking at him with wonder and a very small smile.

But he couldn’t bring himself to smile back. Woohyun had to go to Sungjong. His aunt and uncle must be worried about him too.

“Thanks a lot. You saved my life.” Woohyun said to the boy.

The boy nodded in acknowledgment and looked at the direction where Woohyun’s gaze was- the hospital. “It’s no problem. I am glad to have helped you. I’ll leave then. I hope you reach to your family safely, without any worries.” The boy said with a serious look.

Woohyun almost started crying once again when he heard the word ‘family’, his family was broken now, but the boy must have not meant it in a bad way. He must not even know at all about Woohyun’s situation. They hadn’t met before after all. So, Woohyun simply nodded, and bowed to him thanking him for his help. “Do you need any help to go somewhere? My uncle can help you. You are not lost, are you?” Woohyun asked him.

“I am not. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. You should get going. It’s getting late.”

Woohyun felt small with the way the guy was talking to him patronizingly, but the other was probably older than him. It was not like he had time to think about that. Woohyun needed to go back. But he felt like he was forgetting something.

The boy must have noticed him being rooted to the spot, because he moved closer to Woohyun, and patted his hair. “Take care, okay?” The boy said, worry leaking out of his eyes. And Woohyun could see how hard the boy was trying to not let it show that he was concerned about Woohyun’s state.

His hand was still over Woohyun’s head, and it made Woohyun uncomfortable because it reminded him of how his father used to do that to him. So he took hold of the hand, and stopped it from touching his hair.

The boy looked ashamed, and Woohyun wanted to say, he was sorry and he was not in the right mind, and that the boy’s actions made him nostalgic, but the boy soon withdrew his hand and started walking away after excusing himself.

Woohyun wanted to go after him and ask for his name, but then he noticed Sungjong running towards him from the front, so he got distracted. But before Sungjong could reach him, Woohyun turned towards the direction where his saviour was walking, and shouted, “Thank you for saving me hyung!”

Sungjong was hugging him tightly then, and Woohyun looked up to see that his uncle was smiling at him with relief. There was no angry look for him, but the moisture in his uncle’s eyes made Woohyun feel disappointed at himself. One look at Sungjong’s crying face, and Woohyun vowed to himself never to be irresponsible again.

 

***

 

“Hyung!”

“Hmm”

“Wake up”

“Five minutes Soo”

“You were supposed to be present at your practice session half an hour ago. Your teammates are going to be angry.”

Woohyun woke up with a sudden jolt. Shit, what time was it? He looked at the alarm clock next to the bed and it read eight a.m. He was supposed to be there for practice at seven thirty, and he was still at home. He turned towards Myungsoo, who looked exasperated. “Why didn’t you wake me up earlier?!”

“I did! I tried so many times! But you were not ready to wake up at all! Jongie told me to let you be, when you didn’t wake up after trying for the third time, saying something about you staying up late yesterday to watch one of your shows. I can’t believe even being fourteen years old, you are still like a baby.” Myungsoo looked at Woohyun sternly.

Woohyun wanted to laugh at Myungsoo, because Woohyun was supposed to be the hyung, and Myungsoo was nagging at him like a parent. But he smiled sheepishly, “Ah that…”

“I don’t care about that. Just don’t go overboard with your theories and imagination okay?” Myungsoo sighed. He added after some time, “And take care of yourself.” He said, placing a hand on Woohyun’s shoulder.

Woohyun felt guilty suddenly, because he had been trying his best to not become a burden to anyone and even small incidents like this made him feel sad.

Myungsoo must have noticed his change in mood, because he sat next to him on the bed. “Hyung it’s okay. If there is anything you need to share with anyone, feel free to talk with me okay? I won’t laugh at you.”

Woohyun wanted to put an end to the topic, so he changed the topic, “The guys would be really mad at me. What do I do?” he was actually worried about that, so it was not like he was faking.

“That’s no problem. Sungjong called up Hoya some time ago and told him to inform everyone that you were not feeling well enough to come to the practice today.”

“Oh. Is that so? That’s a relief.” Woohyun said. “Where’s Sungjong by the way?”

“He left for his classes. And I am leaving now. Which is why I came to wake you up. You have to get ready in an hour too for your classes. Mom called and told me they will be back here the next week.”

“That’s nice. I missed them.” Woohyun said. He was happy his uncle and aunt were going to be back, but he knew they were going to leave again soon, so the happiness was not much. And he was still sleepy.

“Yah wake up sleeping princess.” Myungsoo gave him a light hit, and Woohyun was about to launch at Myungsoo, but the younger had run away swiftly missing Woohyun’s grasping fingers.

“Yah!” Woohyun shouted after him, but Myungsoo had escaped saying, “Goodbye hyung and don’t be late to school.”

The sound of the front door closing came, and Woohyun was tempted to go back to sleep, but there would be no one to wake him up again, so he walked to the bathroom yawning.

With a towel over his shoulder for drying up his hair, done with his shower, Woohyun walked to the house phone. He left a message to his aunt saying he had woken up and that Myungsoo and Sungjong had left for school. It was his responsibility to update them daily.

His aunt and uncle were travelling most of the time, yesterday they had been in England and Woohyun did not know where they were today and if they were free, so he went to do some of his school work, not waiting for a reply from them.

It was not necessary that Woohyun update them daily, there was a camera in the living room and kitchen, that sent a live feed to his uncle’s cell phone and they would already know that Myungsoo and Sungjong had left. But Woohyun liked to stay in touch with his aunt and uncle. They were not at home more than half of the time and Woohyun loved them and missed them a lot. They were like parents to him. So he would voice message them daily in the morning. And the three of them, Woohyun, Myungsoo and Sungjong, would talk to them over video call in the night before sleeping.

Myungsoo was Woohyun’s cousin, son of Woohyun’s aunt and uncle. Woohyun lived with his mother’s sister right since his parents passed away four years ago.

Woohyun and Sungjong had been close with Myungsoo since childhood and Myungsoo’s parents were fond of them; and considering their situation, they had taken the two kids under their care. Woohyun did not have grandparents, since his parents had married late, and his grandparents had passed away already before Sungjong had been born. And his father did not have any siblings, so Myungsoo’s family were the only close relative the brothers had. And luckily Myungsoo’s family had taken them in.

Woohyun would be forever grateful to them for it. Though now they were almost like parents to him, but he refused to call them that. Sungjong had started calling them eomma and appa, but Woohyun did not want to do that. His aunt and uncle loved them too much, and it made Woohyun feel guilty when he wouldn’t call them that because he could understand they wanted their three sons to consider them as their parents. But Woohyun did not want to lose memories of his biological parents. That probably wouldn’t happen. But…

The truth was that he was afraid of calling his aunt and uncle as his parents and then losing them too. He did not want to lose his parents again. He felt stupid, but there was no remedy for that.

As he started drying his hair, he thought of what he had watched in the late night show yesterday. To his disappointment, the show did not air any information or theories besides what Woohyun already knew.

The thing was, Woohyun was deeply interested in the concept of time travel. Ever since the incident from four years ago when he had died and had been given a second chance to live, he had tried his best to study all that he could about time travel. He had accepted the fact that all that he had experienced was not a dream.

Dreams do not predict the future with perfect details. And he had definitely experienced the feeling of being stabbed and hit. But the question was- how the hell had he travelled back in time then?

All the theories surrounding it were very confusing, and Woohyun was not that great of a student to understand higher level scientific stuff, but he tried his best to understand all aspects of it, while not letting it interfere with his daily life.

He had not bothered sharing about his experience with anyone except Myungsoo and Sungjong. He had told Sungjong about it six months ago when Sungjong had been pissed off that Woohyun was studying about imaginary concepts in great depth. Surprisingly when Woohyun had explained why he was being like that, Sungjong had accepted his explanation as if Woohyun wouldn’t lie to him. Myungsoo knew about it right during the week when the incident happened with Woohyun four years ago. Woohyun had needed someone to share his thoughts with and Myungsoo had offered to be his friend. And Woohyun had confided in him everything.

He felt grateful to have people who did not judge him for it. They did remind him to be grounded to reality, but never discouraged him from doing whatever research he wanted to do.

Woohyun had wondered all possible things that could have triggered him time travelling then. But the only suspicious thing he had noticed was the boy who had saved him, how he had suddenly appeared out of nowhere. But there could be no connection of him and time travel, could there be?

Shutting down all the thoughts he had regarding the topic, he started solving the trigonometric problems he had to do as homework.

There was a loud roar of thunder outside and Woohyun hoped his brothers had carried their umbrellas with them. The atmosphere turned gloomy, as he looked out of the window and noticed dark clouds looming over the sky. There was darkness everywhere and the wind was flowing very strongly. The weather forecast for the past few days including today had indicated storms and heavy rains, so it was not unexpected, but the weather currently gave him a bad feeling. He wanted to call his brothers and ask them to come back home, but the school would surely send them back home if needed, wouldn’t they?

Woohyun switched on the tv hoping that the weather would calm down soon. They lived at the coast so weather would be a problem many times.

The weather reporter looked quite scared, so Woohyun wondered what was going on. He could not understand most of what they were saying, but then he caught a few words. And-

A tsunami was going to hit them, right in this city, and soon. Woohyun panicked. He called his aunt. She wasn’t picking up. Neither was his uncle picking up his phone. They were probably asleep. He ran to the window and looked outside. He could not even see the sky outside properly. As he opened the main door of his apartment, he noticed that all the neighbours were trying to evacuate their homes and run away as soon as possible to a safe place. The neighbouring lady enquired him where his brothers were, and when Woohyun replied that they were at school, she sighed in relief.

“Come on Woohyun, we have to run.” She pulled him to run with her family. “Your brothers are safe, if they are at school. The school is far away from the coast. The waves aren’t going to be a problem since it’s a small tsunami and would only affect the areas near the coast. So we are unsafe. Come on.”

Woohyun ran along with her after shutting the door to the flat.

Unfortunately, all the residents of their area were outside, so it was close to becoming a stampede soon.

And to his utter misfortune, Woohyun lost the family he was escaping with. The neighbours had two small kids of their own to look after and Woohyun was busy trying to not step on people, so he had unknowingly separated from the family. He was glad his brothers would be safe. But now he had to get himself out of the mess.

There were policemen helping people evacuate the area. Woohyun was trying his best to navigate in the direction the policemen were leading people towards, when he noticed an old woman struggling to walk. She was walking very slowly as she probably had problems with walking, and the policemen ignored helping her as if she was a lost cause.

Woohyun went to her and told her he would help her. The lady smiled at him gratefully and Woohyun lifted her up. It was difficult walking while carrying her and Woohyun realized that suddenly they were the only ones in the area. Everyone else had fled to safety. The weather was terrible and he probably would fly away with the strong winds soon, but he tried his best to stay put.

Then there was a roar of gushing water from far away and Woohyun realized he would not live to see another day.

 

***

 

There was a boom in the sky and he opened his eyes to see that people were running here and there. Someone almost knocked him down, so Woohyun ran to the corner of a building to be away from the crowd.

What was this?

He looked at his surroundings and noticed that he was standing next to a flower shop… which he had passed some time ago. The weather was not as harsh as before and how were there people here when he had been surrounded by no people just seconds ago? And why was he not being swept away by the wind? Where was the old lady? He was really confused.

He was standing in shock, his mind a mixture of thoughts, when a hard shake to his upper body brought him out of his thoughts.

“Boy, run! What are you standing here for?” It was someone from the disaster response team, and he was dragging Woohyun away with him.

Woohyun followed along with him, ultimately getting out from his stupor.

They passed by the place where Woohyun had found the old lady minutes ago and there was no sign of the old lady there. Woohyun was worried about her. But he did not have the time to look out for her and find her.

They ran and ran.

When finally Woohyun was in a place of safety, he looked around and noticed that many residents from the apartment complex he lived in were present there, though he could not find his lady neighbour. So he tried to search for her family in the camp. As his eyes scanned the camp, his gaze stopped somewhere.

The old lady was there in the camp. She was talking to someone, but Woohyun couldn’t clearly see her. So he ran to her, “Are you alright?” He asked, worried. She was alive, and in front of him, and he was really relieved.

The lady looked confused but replied that she was fine. “This boy here saved me today.” She said, smiling at the person standing in front of her.

Woohyun turned his gaze to look at the person and- what? The person seemed familiar, really familiar. Woohyun studied the boy who was looking back at him with a worried look.

Woohyun recollected when he had been the subject of _that_ look before.

It was the boy. His boy. From four years ago. Woohyun couldn’t believe that this was the conclusion he had reached to, but it was undoubtedly the guy who had saved him years ago.

The boy was suddenly excusing himself and leaving. Woohyun ran after him. Surprisingly the guy was rather quick and blended into the crowd, but Woohyun managed to catch sight of him as he was about to exit the camp.

“Hey wait” He ran up to the guy and caught him by the hand.

The guy turned towards him, a questioning look on his face. “Yes?”

It was definitely his saviour. His squishy cheeks were there just like before. “Who are you?” Woohyun asked.

“Huh?”

“We met years ago right? You remember me?” Woohyun said, trying to make the guy stay as he was trying his best to get out of Woohyun’s hold.

The guy suddenly looked nervous. “What?!” He exclaimed.

“You saved me four years ago? Don’t you remember? There was this park and you helped me run away from the other side of the wall?”

The guy looked frightened. There was something like hope in his eyes. But nervousness seemed more overpowering. “I don’t know you.” He said, and walked away.

Woohyun knew not to follow him when there were so many people watching the scene. He wanted to pursue the guy, he had so many questions, but he couldn’t.

His mind was full of doubts and confusing ideas, but there was something he was sure about, he had time travelled again, and the guy had something to do with it.

 

***

 

It was night time and he was back home early from a party in one of their neighbour’s house. His brothers were still enjoying the party, but Woohyun had been bothered about his aunt. His uncle was away on a trip to some country and his aunt had had a serious fight with uncle over the phone in the morning.

It had been bothering Woohyun, since she had been also upset since a few days, so he returned home only to find that his aunt was drinking. She had drunk too much and was mumbling nonsense.

Woohyun heard something like she would kill herself, so he was glad that he was back home to look after her. After laying her on the bed, he went to the kitchen to get some snacks for himself.

A loud noise came from somewhere in the house and he ran out of the kitchen to find that the bedroom in which he had made his aunt sleep was shut. He tried to open it, but it was locked from inside.

He started banging on the door. “Please open the door **auntie**! Please!”

There were sobs coming from the other side. “I… am useless… Woohyun ah. He said he… hates me.”

“I am sure he was not in his right mind. He loves you. Please open the door auntie.” Woohyun was frustrated. What if she actually attempted suicide? The spare keys to the rooms were in the room she was in unfortunately. It was frustrating.

“You hate me too… Woohyun ah. I can never be… your m-mom”

No. Woohyun’s heart was breaking. Had he hurt her? He loved her too much. He did not think him not calling her ‘mother’ would affect her that much. “Please open the door. I love you okay? We need to talk. Open the door for me please. If you care about me, please open the door.” Woohyun was crying.

“Goodbye. Take care of Myungsoo and Sungjong and Woojin too. I trust you Hyun.”

“NOOO!!” Woohyun was trying his best to break down the door, so he could stop her from doing anything foolish. There was some sound and Woohyun recognized it to be that of the window being opened. He tried his best to break open the door with whatever means, and when the door fell down, she was nowhere in the room and the window was open.

“Eomma… No… Please… this can’t be true…”

 

***

 

Woohyun found himself outside his apartment, waiting for the door to open. His aunt was opening the door for him, as he was returning from the party. He stepped inside, trying not to let it show on his face how happy he was on seeing her.

He hugged her. Whatever this time travelling thing was happening to him, it helped him at many crucial times. This was the third time he was being helped by whatever entity, power, magic, science or mystery; the second time being just three months ago. He couldn’t help but be extremely grateful to whatever was helping him.

As his aunt asked him to go freshen up and mumbled something about feeling like killing herself, Woohyun knew what to do to not let her take decisions in a drunken state and how to make things go right this time.

He did not sleep and did not leave her side the entire night. He couldn’t lose his mother again.

 

***

 

The next time the ‘mysterious power’ helped him was around two years later, when he was sixteen. He referred to it as a power, since he had given up on trying to find a scientific reason for the phenomenon. The power had helped him many a times, and though he had tried to study quantum physics and some ancient magic theories, he couldn’t find much about whatever was helping him. There were always some differences with what he read and what he had experienced.

The guy he had come across the first two times had not shown up the third time, but he was there the fourth time.

What was the matter this time? Woohyun and Sungjong were walking on a narrow street in the night and a car had hit Sungjong. Woohyun had not even looked at Sungjong’s motionless body for more than five seconds when he was back in time and was walking through the street along with Sungjong. He turned around to notice that the car was driving towards them.

In the haste to save Sungjong, he ended up standing in the path of the car. He would have been dead meat had someone not pulled him out of the way in the right time.

That someone was the guy, his saviour, Woohyun realized, as he looked up from where he was pressed to the chest of the guy.

Woohyun was sure he was blushing as the guy looked down at him; he was basically being hugged by the guy. And Woohyun did not feel uncomfortable.

The guy separated from him, looking shy, and Woohyun found the sight cute. The guy’s features had changed a little from how he looked years ago, but he was still as cute.

Woohyun mentally scolded himself for making note of the attractiveness of the guy; he had a lot of questions to ask. Unfortunately, the guy did not seem too keen to answer, as he turned away to leave.

“At least, tell me your name please.” Woohyun said, knowing he wasn’t going to get any answers from him soon. And he had to look after Sungjong now, to prevent any accidents from happening again. Terrible timing.

The guy stopped walking and turned around.

“Kim Sunggyu”

“Oh Sunggyu, hello! Thanks for helping me, I am Nam Woohyun!” He introduced himself.

Sunggyu was looking at Woohyun annoyed, but Woohyun gave him a bright smile, and Sunggyu smiled back too, and Woohyun could feel from him that he probably wanted to talk to Woohyun too as much Woohyun wanted to talk to him. Something was holding him back. “Call me hyung. I am older than you Woohyun.” Sunggyu said giving him a small smile, and walked away quickly.

Woohyun did not know he was in a daze, until Sungjong snapped him out of it.

 

***

 

They met a few times after that. Sunggyu would be present most of the times, since Woohyun was a dumb shit who couldn’t save himself despite being allowed to go back in time.

There was a time when Hoya had almost lost his legs and Woohyun knew how badly the younger had wanted to be a dancer, the power had helped him go back in time, to prevent Hoya from losing his leg. Then there was the other time Woohyun had almost lost his life, again, and Sunggyu had become a pizza delivery man, who had incidentally saved Woohyun and his family from getting burnt in the house fire.

Woohyun was twenty one now and he had met Sunggyu nine times by now and had travelled back in time fourteen times. Whenever he would come across Sunggyu, he would try to talk to the older, tease him and get scolded back, but the only personal info he had managed to obtain from Sunggyu was that Sunggyu was two years older than Woohyun. And that was not really helpful.

They had become a bit closer, at least that was what Woohyun wanted to believe, since they sometimes addressed each other informally. But the gap between their meetings was something Woohyun did not appreciate. It was a good thing because it meant that he was not risking his life since Sunggyu was like a reaper who came to him when Woohyun was about to die, but those were the only times they could meet, so Woohyun was sad too.

Over the years, Sunggyu had softened a bit more and let Woohyun talk to him more and would even reply sometimes. But Woohyun always craved for more. He wanted to know more of the guy, and it was not only because Sunggyu was an enigma and was somehow related to Woohyun’s life and death, but also because Woohyun had grown attached to him.

Woohyun had stopped trying to understand the time travelling thing. He had wondered whether he could try to take his life. Would Sunggyu come to save him? He could try to get killed. But he did not want to take the risk, as much as he had grown fond of the older guy.

Though what he was doing now could be considered ‘trying to get himself killed’. He was on a trip, travelling along with some people in a part of the country which was as good as deserted, but he had ended up being separated from his group and was lost and all alone now.

It was snowing terribly and there was no presence of humanity in the near distance from what he could see. Night came soon and there was no way he could try to navigate the hilly area. He knew not to get into life endangering situations since the power could help only him so much. He can’t expect to be helped throughout his life. But he wasn’t to be blamed in this case, was he? Who knew the weather would turn this bad all of a sudden?

He was shivering from the cold despite the layers of clothes he was wearing and visibility was close to zero from the snow falling as he tried to find a place where he could stay for the night.

It was hard to even walk and he thought of giving up, but then he would freeze to death there. Cementing his willpower, he walked and walked until he found a structure which could be inhabited.

It was a small shed like thing. Woohyun would think it was a garage, but a garage wouldn’t be in the middle of nowhere would it? He walked towards it, and easily pulled the sliding door open. The inside was dark. Pulling his flashlight from the bag, he studied the shed. There was a big, cozy loveseat in a corner, a wooden chair, an umbrella and some blankets. Maybe this was used as a resting place.

He was glad he could find a place to stay for the night. He wondered if his group was lost like him, but he remembered they had a group leader and she would be able to lead the group well. She seemed experienced. He wondered if they would be looking for him, but they might have not even noticed him missing yet. It was not like his cell phone had connectivity, otherwise he would have contacted them. Still, he opened the sliding door to glance outside and check if anyone was roaming outside.

A gust of cold wind slammed his front and he suddenly closed the door. Trying to venture outside again now was suicide.

The inside of the shed was comparatively warm, though it was still cold, but if he managed to survive the night here, he would be able to get out of there safely hopefully.

He tried to be optimistic. His whole body was shivering now as a result of being out in the cold for so long and he was exhausted. He removed all the layers of clothes he was wearing and stripped down to his full sleeve black vest and black jeans. The cold was affecting him more now, so he ran to the single big couch and sat down on it, pulling the jackets and scarves he had with him over him, so that they could cover him from the cold. He placed the bag between his legs.

He wondered whether to keep the flashlight switched on since it felt creepy to let the room remain in darkness. But what if someone entered the place? And what if someone attacked him in his sleep? Was it wise to go to sleep? The tired muscles in his body made his decision for him. He had to sleep.

So he stood up, ran to the sliding door, taking the wooden chair with him, to place as an obstruction, since it could serve him as a warning in case anyone tried to enter the place. He wondered whether it would be right to lock the place from inside using a rope or something, but if anyone was in genuine requirement of a place to rest, that would prevent them from entering, so Woohyun decided not to lock the place. The actual lock was broken anyway.

As he turned around to go back to his place, thinking where he should keep the knife with him for self-defence, the cold storm attacked his back.

It suddenly stopped as Woohyun turned back to the door, eyes alert, to see who had opened the door. Not like he could see anything. There was only darkness around him.

There was no sound, no movement in the shed, but then, “Woohyun, it’s me”

Woohyun switched on his flashlight to focus on the front, and he noticed someone turning their face away, so the light wouldn’t hurt their eyes.

It was Sunggyu.

The older was covered in layers of clothes similar to how Woohyun had been covered earlier, and had his hands full of small logs of wood. “We should light up a fire.” Sunggyu went to the middle of the room; Woohyun’s flashlight followed his movements. Sunggyu squatted down and began arranging the logs. “Do you have something to light this up?”

Woohyun searched in his bag and they lit up a fire. No questions asked, like it was totally fine for Sunggyu to show up randomly where Woohyun was, like it was totally fine for him to show up after months, like it was totally fine for him to suddenly start helping Woohyun, like it was totally fine for Sunggyu to suddenly turn to leave.

Woohyun ran behind Sunggyu as the latter was heading towards the sliding door. “Please wait.” He knew his voice came out as desperate, but this was the first time in years that they were completely alone together, not even the crowd to disturb them, and Woohyun did not want Sunggyu to leave this time.

He had become accustomed to that, maybe it was Sunggyu’s duty to protect Woohyun and not do anything more than that. But Woohyun wanted to talk to Sunggyu. He had a lot of questions. But other than that, he also wanted to talk to the guy who had been a part of his life since more than a decade.

Whether Sunggyu would listen to him or not was not determinable, but Woohyun was not going to let go of this chance. He ran up to Sunggyu, bringing him in a tight embrace from behind, and started whining. “Please don’t leave me hyung.” He was embarrassed doing that, but he was desperate enough to not be bothered by it much.

“I am staying.” Sunggyu said with a chuckle after a while, and Woohyun let go of him finally.

“Really?” He asked sceptically.

Sunggyu turned to him with a shy eye smile which made Woohyun melt. “I will be here with you till you are staying here.”

“Then I will stay here forever.” Woohyun said, without thinking.

Sunggyu’s face was red now and even Woohyun felt a little mortified. Sunggyu finally came to his senses though. “You can’t, pabo.” He said, scolding Woohyun.

Who is a pabo? Woohyun wanted to say, but he was happy that Sunggyu was talking to him informally. They were comfortable with each other like that over the years, but Woohyun had missed him, having not seen him even once for the past six months.

Sunggyu started undressing, until he was in a simple white t-shirt and blue jeans. Just seeing his exposed arms, made Woohyun shiver in cold.

So he ran up to Sunggyu and hugged him. “Aren’t you feeling cold?”

Sunggyu stood like a statue in his embrace, and Woohyun wondered whether he was overstepping some boundaries, but then a pair of hands were on his back, hugging him back, and Woohyun felt content.

They stayed in each other’s embrace for a while. Woohyun hugged him tight, wanting to store this memory safely. He could hear Sunggyu’s heart beating, and his breathing tickling his neck. The hair on the back of Sunggyu’s head were standing up, and Woohyun moved close to the patch of skin joining the neck, almost about to place a kiss over there, when Sunggyu withdrew from the hug. He hoped the older hadn’t noticed him trying to kiss him. It was an involuntary reaction definitely, wasn’t it?

Sunggyu moved to the door again, and Woohyun had worries creeping in his mind that maybe Sunggyu had got disgusted by Woohyun’s creepy behaviour and now wanted to go away, but the older simply stood in front of the door, and was studying the door.

“I need your help to lock this.” Sunggyu said, after a while.

They ended up locking it with some random stuff from Woohyun’s bag. Woohyun gave his explanation for not wanting to lock the door, but Sunggyu replied that there was no one who required help within a long distance from this place, so no one would require this place for resting.

When Woohyun asked how Sunggyu knew about that, Sunggyu simply replied with, “I know stuff.”

Woohyun was not satisfied, but he let it go.

Sunggyu went to sit on the chair, covering himself with the extra clothing, and Woohyun went to the couch doing the same. “Go to sleep Hyun ah” Sunggyu said.

Woohyun was seriously questioning himself with how Sunggyu managed to make him feel hot with the simplest of things. Just calling him ‘Hyun ah’ made him feel shy. It wasn’t unusual. Sunggyu had once or twice called him like that in the past years. Woohyun could actually consider Sunggyu’s presence as that of an older brother. But do older brothers make you feel like this?

Sunggyu closed his eyes.

“Hyung”

“Yes?” Sunggyu replied, eyes still closed.

“I have to talk with you.”

Sunggyu opened his eyes, and shifted his gaze to Woohyun. “I won’t be able to solve your curiosity Woohyun.”

“Why can’t you?” Woohyun asked whining.

“Because I am not allowed to. We are not allowed to let the scientists or researchers here know about these things.”

“Do you think I will out you?”

“What do you mean?”

“I won’t share about whatever you tell me with anyone if that’s what you want.”

“How do I believe you?”

“You don’t?” Woohyun looked at him sharply, searching for trust in his eyes, but Sunggyu’s eyes did not reveal anything. They were instead studying Woohyun. Even being under all those layers of clothing, the gaze made Woohyun feel scrutinized.

“If not to share it with anyone, why would you want to know about this stuff otherwise? Aren’t you satisfied with getting your ass saved regularly? I have to come here to save you so many times… Can’t you take a bit more care of yourself?” Sunggyu sighed.

It gave Woohyun the feeling that Sunggyu was tired of coming to him and that hurt him. He huffed and turned away from the older, trying not to cry as he sulked into the scarf.

“Woohyun” Sunggyu called out his name.

But Woohyun wasn’t paying heed to him. He decided to go to sleep. Just as he closed his eyes, he was being moved.

Woohyun turned to look at what was happening, and… Sunggyu was sitting next to him on the couch.

Woohyun sprang up from the couch as if it was on fire. He almost fell down since he was bundled in a ridiculous amount on clothing, but managed to balance himself and then glared at Sunggyu.

Sunggyu proceeded to make himself comfortable on the couch, and Woohyun stalked to the chair. “Come here Woohyun” Sunggyu said.

“Why should I? You don’t want to be near me, why should I come to you? Go to hell.” Woohyun pouted and flipped him off.

“Yah!” Sunggyu yelled, but it came out softly. “Woohyun please come here” Sunggyu requested.

The ‘please’ made Woohyun reconsider his decision, plus usually the older would not even stay even after Woohyun would request so much and now Sunggyu was calling him, so… he might as well take advantage of the situation. He stood up, walking to the couch, and sat between Sunggyu’s legs, pressing himself to Sunggyu’s chest. He made sure to unwrap himself from the clothing, and cover the two of them together with those. And now, he waited for Sunggyu to kick him off. Too many limits had been crossed already.

But the kick did not come. Instead Sunggyu was bringing him closer, his hands around him, and Woohyun was sure he was smiling like crazy. Thankfully, his face was hidden in Sunggyu’s chest.

Sunggyu was stroking his hair and though Woohyun tried to remind himself he was not a puppy, he was still leaning towards the touch.

“Woohyun” Sunggyu murmured his name.

Woohyun would never get tired of hearing his name from the other’s mouth. That was one of the reasons why he had tried to make Sunggyu frustrated many times these past years, so he could get to hear him saying his name.

“Sunggyu” Woohyun murmured back. He had expected a scolding for him to call him hyung, but it never came.

“I…I don’t want to be not near to you.” Sunggyu said finally.

The statement confused him, but he realized what Sunggyu meant. It was about their small fight from just some time before. “Then why…” He asked.

“I am scared of you getting hurt okay? I don’t want you to get hurt. That is why I was angry.” Sunggyu said.

“I know I am dumb.” Woohyun conceded.

“You are not. You have not been in danger as many times as others have been. You are better than the average person Woohyun, so much so that I thought you were being so careful just because you could avoid me like that.” Sunggyu said.

That surprised Woohyun. He wondered why Sunggyu would think like that, that Woohyun wanted to avoid him, but he was more curious about certain other things. “So I am not the only one you help?” He asked. It would be wonderful if other people too were being helped by Sunggyu, but it made him jealous too. That was very selfish of him. But all this time, he had thought Sunggyu was only helping him. He wanted to be special. To think that the older was like this with many people, cared as much for others as he cared for Woohyun, gave him a bad feeling.

“You are the only one I am assigned to help.” Sunggyu said.

And Woohyun let out a sigh of relief. Sunggyu was looking at him curiously, but Woohyun distracted him with another question. “So… what are you?”

Sunggyu let out a laugh. “I am a human being of course.” Sunggyu said, eyes crinkling into a smile.

Woohyun appreciated the beauty in front of him for a while, letting it take over his embarrassment.

“I understand what you are asking. But I am a human being, though you can call me an alien too.”

“Alien huh?” Woohyun smirked. “So you might have some different body parts huh?” He tried to study Sunggyu’s body and look for anything different.

“Your girlfriend would be mad Hyun, if you are checking someone out like this.” Sunggyu said.

What? “How do you know I have a girlfriend?” Woohyun narrowed his eyes.

“I know a lot about you.” Sunggyu said, mischievously.

Woohyun gulped in horror, wondering if Sunggyu saw him mastu-

“Okay, I don’t know too much, but enough about you.” Sunggyu stopped Woohyun’s train of thoughts.

“Like what?”

“I come here to check on you regularly, so I know of any new updates about your life like that. I don’t invade your privacy if you are worried about that.”

“How regularly do you come?” This was comfortable than before. They could talk like this, being close to each other. Talking to Sunggyu from the chair would have been difficult. This situation also meant that Woohyun couldn’t possibly lie, but the same went for Sunggyu. He wanted to cling tightly to Sunggyu, but they had to maintain the conversation, so he kept slight distance between, and leaned to Sunggyu’s shoulder, running his palms over Sunggyu’s arms.

“Whenever I feel like it.”

“So you come to get updates about me, but never think of meeting me in person. Am I that revolting?” Woohyun had missed Sunggyu. They did not know each other properly. The only interactions happening between them was the rare times when Sunggyu came to save Woohyun’s life and Woohyun would cling to him and prolong his stay, trying to get him to talk to him. That Sunggyu was talking to him now for a long time now and opening up a little about himself, was something Woohyun appreciated. But that did not make him any less bitter that Sunggyu would be so close to him, yet Woohyun couldn’t meet him whenever he wanted to.

“It’s not that.”

“You could at least say hi.”

“That’s not a part of my duty.”

“Since you know so much about me, can you tell me stuff about you and this duty you speak of, please?” Woohyun looked at Sunggyu.

Sunggyu looked back at him, and gave up. “Okay. I trust you. Let me tell you about myself. But don’t interrupt me, alright.”

Woohyun nodded and went back to leaning over Sunggyu’s shoulder.

“I live in a galaxy far away from yours. But our galaxy is really similar to this one. My planet Kasol is similar to earth, the living conditions, weather and all. It’s almost a replica of earth. But the difference is, that we have our lives connected to people in the earth. Every single person in the earth has a connection with one person from Kasol. It may be anyone. Kasolians know when their partner in earth is in a distressing situation, and they are allowed to go help them. Kasolians can travel between galaxies with the speed of light, and there’s this galaxy in a far-away part of the universe which moves backwards in time. So we take our partners from earth to that galaxy, and bring them back to earth, so we can give them another chance to prevent that distressing situation from happening. Did you understand so far all of what I said?”

“Yes… so that means you are my partner?” Woohyun looked up at him.

Sunggyu was shifting his eyes. “Don’t say it like that. You have a girlfriend right? You can call me your buddy.”

Why was Sunggyu so hung up on the fact that Woohyun had a girlfriend? Okay, Woohyun could concede that it was odd that he was sticking to Sunggyu like this when he was supposed to have a girlfriend, but he was already on the verge of breaking up with her. She was bored of him apparently. And also, don’t friends cling to each other? And if it was a friend like Sunggyu who you would get to meet unexpectedly only twice a year, or sometimes after years, and only for a few minutes, then it was fair enough that Woohyun was being clingy, wasn’t it?

Sunggyu was waiting for him to speak.

“So you are my partner.” Woohyun said, much to the annoyance of Sunggyu.

“Yes, I am.” Sunggyu relented.

“Then why don’t you stay back to talk to me?” Woohyun questioned.

“Because I can’t. Has anyone from Earth ever told you about their Kasolian partners?”

Woohyun shook his head.

“That is because they don’t know about this. They don’t remember their partners since the meeting is brief and subtle. You only remember me because you remember travelling back in time, which is something you can’t forget for some reason and is a highly unusual occurrence as in most cases, everyone forgets about time travelling. And since I am associated with that memory, you probably could remember seeing me before.”

“I would have remembered you otherwise too. You are too beautiful not to be remembered.”

The blush on Sunggyu’s cheeks was visible and Woohyun was desperately trying to come up with insults so as to pretend he had not meant what he said.

“I mean you are too unique not to be remembered. You resemble a hamster after all.” Woohyun teased.

That worked out to be a bad explanation, because Sunggyu was puffing his cheeks, all the more resembling a hamster. He managed to push down Woohyun off him to the floor, despite the layers of clothing which had been covering them both.

“Hyung” Woohyun cried and his cry matched with the “hyung” coming from the device tied around Sunggyu’s hand which resembled a watch.

“Oh it was on speaker sorry” Sunggyu said, and pressed something on the device.

A voice came from the device. “The area is clear. Target is on the move in the next town. Will start moving in this direction in about five hours time as per our prediction. I will wake you up then.”

“Okay.” Sunggyu replied, and pressed some button again to presumably end the call.

“What was that?” Woohyun asked from the floor.

Sunggyu blinked at him. “There is a serial killer living around here and we have been tracking him since weeks. A few Kasolians got killed while saving their partners, so our plan is to eliminate him. I am only here to help you escape before he reaches you. He usually comes to this place to rest in the morning, and when I knew you were resting here, I decided to come to you beforehand so we can escape in time. You already know me anyway. Besides everyone else died trying to take on the killer single handed, so I am leaving that to the experts this time.”

“Oh. That’s scary. So I would have died in the morning?”

“Yes.”

“What do you get in return for saving me? For saving us? Why do you people do that?”

“We don’t get anything.” Sunggyu replied. “It is totally up to us to decide whether we want to help or not when the time comes.”

“Then why do you help me?”

“Do you want to die?” Sunggyu raised his eyebrows.

“Do you like me?” Woohyun asked.

Sunggyu covered himself in the blankets and mumbled something.

“Because I like you too.” Woohyun continued. “Please don’t run away again.”

Sunggyu opened his arms and Woohyun climbed up on the couch again to lean against him.

Upon dawn, they left the shelter quickly, keeping the conversation between them to the bare minimum. And after around an hour, when they had reached the town nearby and Woohyun bent down to tie his shoelaces and looked up again, Sunggyu had disappeared.

 

 

 

 


End file.
